Day 7 Burning the Midnight Oil

9^th  January 2011

Day 7

Today we lost Claire and Christian. (Very careless I know). Seriously what with no wind and no diving, (The visibility is crap because of all the rains) they finally decided that as there is an airport in Townsville and this may be their last chance for a while they should grab it. Guys, it has been a pleasure having you on the boat and I hope we stay in touch.

We have wind! Not much, and blowing in the wrong direction but it does show it exists. We finally said our goodbyes, left the Frenchies with the Moke and got underway about 10am. Our options are fairly limited. Cape Cleveland is only 8 nms away, Cape Bowling Green is a respectable 60nms, Cape Upstart an ambitious 100nms, or Bowen at 140nms. Our reasoning is Cleveland is too near, Bowling Green has crap anchoring so it’s Upstart or Bowen. We decidied to make a decision when we got to Upstart.

The weather was fine so with jib and motor we chugged Dreamagic along at an average of about 7 knts. The wind filled to 15knts but still jut slightly off the Port bow so we kept that configuration until Abbott Point. We were rewarded with an absolutely stunning sunset as we eat, listened to music or dozed. There were some surprising moments trying to identify the lights at Abbott Point Wharf. The yellow ones were easy, the are on the chart. The white ones were tankers and surprisingly they were not shown.

At about 01.00 we were in line with Bowen and ready to make an approach. The northern entrance is marked but I have been through there in daylight and scared myself. I am certainly not keen to do it at night. We took the longer southern entrance and arrived just outside the harbour at 02.00. We dropped anchor in 5 metres of water just out of the channel markers and immediately fell asleep.